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Title: Officer Admitted He 'F***ed Up' After Fatally Shooting an Unarmed Man
Source:
Reason
URL Source: http://reason.com/blog/2018/08/09/o ... o-fatally-shot-unarmed-man-tol
Published: Aug 9, 2018
Author: Joe Setyon
Post Date: 2018-08-10 06:49:18 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1322
Comments: 8
Not long after fatally shooting an unarmed man, a Pennsylvania police officer reportedly admitted to a fellow cop at the scene that he "fucked up." South Whitehall Township Police Officer Jonathan Roselle was charged with involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the July 28 shooting. The 33-year-old U.S. Army veteran had only been a cop for about six months when the shooting occurred. Prior to the shooting, Roselle was monitoring traffic when a "hysterical and frantic" woman pulled up alongside his police car, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin. The woman told Roselle that a man had attempted to break into her car. ABC News recounts what happened next: Roselle then encountered a bleeding man walking on the street, and the man banged on his car and jumped on the hood, Martin said. After that, Roselle reported the incident over radio—saying that the man may have mental issues—and issued several commands for the man to get off the vehicle and step away. Martin says the man—44-year-old Joseph Santos—started walking away but then turned around, refusing Roselle's orders to get on the ground. According to Martin, Santos said, "Don't do it," before Roselle shot at him five times. Santos was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Roselle, meanwhile, told at least one fellow officer at the scene that he "fucked up" and "didn't know what to do," Martin says. According to the district attorney, there's no reason to believe race played a factor. But he believes the shooting was still unjustified. "This was the act of a relatively inexperienced officer, who held a subjective fear for his own safety, but made a decision which objectively was unreasonable in light of the facts as they existed and appeared at the time he discharged his weapon and killed Mr. Santos," Martin says. "[Santos] was not running or rushing," Martin adds in a statement. "He did not have anything visible in his hands; he was not clenching his fists; he did not present a threatening posture." Roselle's attorney, on the other hand, says the "deadly force" his client used was "justified and appropriate." Roselle was released on bail and has been placed on paid leave by the South Whitehall Township Police Department. As I noted yesterday, that's not a particularly surprising short-term fate, given that getting paid not to work is a pretty common "consequence" for officers involved in controversial shootings. What is surprising is that Roselle was charged so quickly. In fact, just 90 police officers involved in fatal shootings have faced criminal charges since 2005, according to Bowling Green State University professor Phil Stinson (there have been 613 officer-involved fatal shootings so far in 2018 alone). Of those 90, just 32 have actually been convicted. Roughly half of those convictions resulted from guilty pleas. 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#2. To: Deckard (#0)
As the cop is a public employee with a property interest in his job, he cannot be fired without due process, i.e., a fair hearing and an opportunity to be heard. As it would be unlawful to fire him without said due process, the lawful choices are to return him to duty with pay, or to place him on administrative leave with pay. They placed him on administrative leave with pay. Would you prefer the only other legal alternative, returning him immediately to duty with pay? Have all these writers you find gone to some special school for the gifted?
Um... Dicktard doesn’t believe in “due process” for cops.
In what other jobs can you kill someone, admit you fucked up and still get a paid vacation while not being fired?
How quickly the willfully ignorant yellow stenographers of the Fake News forget. Of course, law enforcement has not even been the leading example. Nobody has talked about "going cop." Going Postal is in another league altogether, shooting up and stabbing co-workers and supervisors. Moreover, the employment property right belongs to every permanent civil service employee, and to some non-permanent civil service employees. Despite your expressed willful ignorance of this fact, there are millions of them. How dumb can you pretend to be? Evidently, as dumb as it takes to avoid attempting to respond to the substance of a post you are unable to actually address on the merits. Your dumb, stupid and willfully ignorant act even extends to the address line where you change handles so they do not appear as pings. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532 (1985) - "Under Ohio law, Loudermill was a 'classified civil servant.' Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 124.11 (1984). Such employees can be terminated only for cause, and may obtain administrative review if discharged." Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254 (1970) - "Welfare benefits are a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them and procedural due process is applicable to their termination." Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564 (1972) Thus, the Court has held that a person receiving welfare benefits under statutory and administrative standards defining eligibility for them has an interest in continued receipt of those benefits that is safeguarded by procedural due process. Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U. S. 254; See Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603, 611. Similarly, in the area of public employment, the Court has held that a public college professor dismissed from an office held under tenure provisions, Slochower v. Board of Education, 350 U. S. 551, and college professors and staff members dismissed during the terms of their contracts, Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183, have interests in continued employment that are safeguarded by due process. Only last year, the Court held that this principle "proscribing summary-dismissal from public employment without hearing or inquiry required by due process" also applied to a teacher recently hired without tenure or a formal contract, but nonetheless with a clearly implied promise of continued employment. Connell v. Higginbotham, 403 U. S. 207, 208. It is the Constitution, Amendment 5, as incorporated into the 14th Amendment against the states, you Decktard mutant.
#7. To: nolu chan (#6)
Simpleton - I was referring to those whose work actually contributes a benefit to society - not some incompetent government drone who gets paid whether they do their jobs or not.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestRoselle was released on bail and has been placed on paid leave by the South Whitehall Township Police Department. As I noted yesterday, that's not a particularly surprising short-term fate, given that getting paid not to work is a pretty common "consequence" for officers involved in controversial shootings.
#3. To: nolu chan (#2)
#5. To: FireIsland, nolu spam (#3)
“due process” for cops.
#6. To: Deckard, , GrandIsland, Wilfully Ignorant (#5)
In what other jobs can you kill someone, admit you fucked up and still get a paid vacation while not being fired?
The Fourteenth Amendment's procedural protection of property is a safeguard of the security of interests that, a person has already acquired in specific benefits. These interests—property interests--may take many forms.
No person shall ... be deprived of ... property, without due process of law....
Replies to Comment # 6. Moreover, the employment property right belongs to every permanent civil service employee, and to some non-permanent civil service employees.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
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